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A Few More Unnecessary Words About Steve Jobs

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Photo: http://www.allaboutapple.com/

We’re supposed to have something pithy and perceptive to say about Steve Jobs’ resignation right now, I suppose. I mean, we’re Nerdist and we’re as much into tech as anything else (okay, maybe we’re more into Doctor Who. And the Muppets. And space, and standup comedy, and zombies. But tech’s up there, too). Pretty much the only thought coming to mind, though, is, well, there it is, um, he’s stepping down, hope he’s okay. I’ve been looking all over the Net and Twitter, and nobody else appears so far to have anything special to say, either (and, no, “iQuit” is not an original joke). It’s all just general shock, even though a) he’s not dead, b) he’ll still be Chairman, for whatever that might be worth, and c) everybody knew this was coming at some point. It wasn’t a secret that at some point, he’d be unable to continue. And now that the day is here, the news still came as something of a shock. What? Now? Really? That must mean… oh.

Our contribution here? Just to remind you of a few things:

1. This is not the end of the world. Your MacBook Pro will not dematerialize. Lion will still be confounding your scrolling instincts tomorrow. Your AT&T iPhone will still be dropping calls. There are about two years’ worth of new products already in the pipeline. Whatever changes the company goes through, if any, won’t be apparent for a couple of years, if there are any changes. It might even get better. Nobody knows.

2. There is absolutely no proof at this time that Matt Mira’s resignation from the Apple store at the Grove is related to today’s announcement. You can make assumptions, but until there’s proof, it remains in the “Unsolved” file.

But maybe you have something more pertinent to say. Can Apple survive and innovate without Jobs at the day-to-day helm? Is Tim Cook the right guy? Will they become “just another company”? Perhaps you’re not an Apple fan at all, you have an Android phone and use Linux anyway, and you have a perspective on this. Or you just don’t care. Whatever your thoughts, post ‘em below in the comments. Good, bad, indifferent, your choice; Just keep it civil.

Steve Jobs steps down as Apple CEO… Apple lover or not, you’ve got to respect one of the world’s greatest entrepenuers and innovators. The guy helped define the personal computer, saw a young John Lasseter’s dream of computer animated features and funded Pixar, and reinvented Apple again into one of the largest companies on the planet that continuously pushed technology to meet design and user experience. We raise our glass to you, Mr. Jobs.

This affects me little… Until the whole of Apple goes down, I won’t feel safe from my Mac friends telling me how grand Apple products are, how superior the hardware is, how beautiful the aesthetics, how worth every penny a Mac is… and then building themselves a f**king Hackintosh.

It was a surprise and a not-surprise. People in the tech community have known for for a while that Steve Jobs’ health has been waxing and waning. At this point he was the face and the final say. Tim has been with him for a long time and helped reinvigorate the company over ten years ago. He’s a very good choice. I just hope this gives a very busy man time to deal with his health and well-being.

Disclaimer: I am not an Apple fan boy. I don;t even own an Apple product.

Yep, that’s sad, Wish I could join THE NODE- hint, hint, Chris, but I get how you won’t invite me, but when I’m famous and rich your not invited to my giant parties, sorry, I didn’t mean it, Please forgive me, Please, Please!

The Magnavox Odyssey² made me fall for pixels, but the joystick got persnickety. The Amiga let me plot my own pixels, but the resolution was too chunky. Next I used Logo to move a Turtle around for who knows what, and it felt like math.

There there was a sort of lull. I tried the IBM thing my dad brought home, but it was only good for Zork.

During senior year, my high school was able to get exactly one “big” Macintosh computer and Laserprinter.

With rudimentary mouse in hand, I _finally_ felt a connection with machine and software. Using MacPaint and PageMaker, I assembled the school newspaper and figured out what I wanted to do in life.

Computers evolved quickly and so did the tools. Postscript was largely supplanted by HTML (I’m skipping that whole CD-ROM phase), and screen resolution went up and up (and now back down).

Thorough all of the evolutions, only one company has consistently produced that tools that keep me engaged and energized to MAKE, and that is Apple.

Sure, I’ve no doubt I would have found another means to the same end, but I’ve yet to find any that do it with such fluid ease. I feel like a Mac is a paintbrush that feels right in my hand, and other platforms feel like painting with my wrong hand (or feet). It’s a total preference thing, I know. I’m not saying it is better, I am saying it is what is right for me.

I think this largely came to be in such a way, in such a timeframe, because of one man—Steve Jobs.

He didn’t do it alone but he did set a course.

I feel like I’ve grown up benefitting from the tools he’s been so passionate about creating—tools that help my passion to create.

I like to think Steve Jobs is stepping down as CEO because he understands time very well. There’s important work yet to do, but Apple? They’ve got a fine trajectory.

Much like the passing of Gene Roddenberry, maybe some good can come from this. Mac has made seemingly all the right decisions in anticipating market demand and product scope and appeal.

Where Apple has made missteps into MY market was the cancellation of the Final Cut Pro series (Final Cut X is not part of the ‘pro’ lineage and while an AMAZING product is more of an iMovie product than a pro post production tool). The word on the street is that the Macbook Pro series is also going to sunset and the Mac Pro tower PCs are said to be on their way out as well. This last bit MIGHT be simply a rumor but the question has to be asked: If Final Cut Pro is gone and the need for super high end Macs is on the retreat, why keep a $5000+ machine in the line-up?

What I’m hoping is that at Apple, cooler heads will prevail and Final Cut X will be retooled as a 64bit successor to Final Cut 7 as it was originally announced to be. That Apple will finally produce a workable pro audio tool comparable to Pro Tools and that there will be at least one line of performance Macs available for the professional who needs a reliable, format independent editing solution (sorry Avid).

So as much as losing Mr. Jobs is a bad thing, maybe with his veto power removed, professional Mac post production can be rescued from the dust bin and put back to work in my studio immediately!

With my android phone, android tablet, PC laptop and even a Zune I’ve had no use for apple. But, I hate to hear of anyone having health troubles. I hope with apple off of his shoulders he can find his way back to health.

Since I am not going to spend one solitary penny on another product that won’t play flash, I am very indifferent towards the company losing Jobs. The iPad’s refusal to run flash has frustrated me into looking at Samsungs touch pad.

User Chris Glass said it perfectly, I think. Apple didn’t invent the pointer device, or the GUI. But they made them work, and put them in the hands of millions of people in a meaningful way. And a lot of that has to do with Steve Jobs.

And while I prefer the “open” philosophy Wozniak espoused to Jobs’ locked-down, vertically integrated approach, no one can deny the impression Jobs’ vision has made on the way we as humans interact with technology on a day-to-day basis.

Aw, good old Macintosh Plus. Oh how many nights we spent together in the basement of the Sid Richardson building, canoodling in the library, or catching up in the English writing lab. We even snuck into the Draper learning lab a time or two. Sometimes I would wait in line just to see you, just to press your gentle keys, and share with you my musings on whatever was going on in my daily life. Your weird screen color and activating chime never failed to make me smile, although that one time you refused to give me back my diskette was painful. How drastic!! Your petulance was hurtful. Alas, you failed to keep up with the times. Your limited memory couldn’t satisfy anymore, and we grew apart. You may have been replaced by Macintosh II, a svelte and modern machine, and later the IBM compatibles, but you were not forgotten, you boxy thing you.

With Steve Jobs retiring we see the loss of the greatest marketing genius of this or possibly any generation. You can argue his impact on technology was overstated(given the range of claims made by fanboys and tech writers), but the man made it cool to spend an extra five hundred dollars on a comparable machine. He convinced millions of (reasonably)intelligent people to pay extra for style, and work as his acolytes by harassing those of us who weren’t willing to pay extra for almost exactly the same machine. He was and is a genius(just not in the field most people give him credit for being one.) I hope he enjoys his retirement, and wish him good fortune and health.

“[W]ith or without Jobs, Apple is, for the foreseeable future, going to coin simply astonishing amounts of money.” Salmon wrote in a post entitled “Thanks, Steve.” “It made $7.3 billion of profit just in the last quarter, on revenues of an almost unimaginable $28.6 billion. That makes Apple of the most profitable companies the world has ever seen — and makes its stock look almost cheap, even at a market cap of $350 billion.